"Call them, then!" answered the other, making at him, "call them! think
you again to fool me? Ho, Geta and Arminius, get round the fountain and
set on him! make haste I say--kill--kill."

And with the word he rushed at him, aiming a fierce blow at his head,
while the others a moment afterward charged on him from the other side.

But during the brief parley Arvina had disengaged the folds of his gown
from his light shoulder, and wrapped it closely about his left arm, and
when Catiline rushed in he parried the blow with his sword, and raising
the little horn he carried, to his lips, blew a long piercing call, which
was answered by a loud shout close at hand, and by the rush of many feet
without the grotto.

Catiline was himself astonished at the unexpected aid, for he had taken
the words of the young patrician for a mere boast. But his men were
alarmed and fell back in confusion, while Paul, profiting by their
hesitation, sprang with a quick active bound across the basin of the
fountain, and gained the cavern's mouth just as his stout freedman Thrasea
showed himself in the entrance with a close casque and cuirass of bronze,
and a boar spear in his hand, the heads and weapons of several other
able-bodied men appearing close behind.

At the head of these Arvina placed himself instantly, having his late
assailants hemmed in by a force, against which they now could not
reasonably hope to struggle.

But Paullus showed no disposition to take undue advantage of his
superiority, for he said in a calm steady voice, "I leave you now, my
friend; and it will not be my fault, if aught that has passed here, is
remembered any farther. None here have seen you, or know who you are; and
you may rest assured that for _her_ sake and mine own honor, if I join not
your plans, I will not betray you, or reveal your counsels. To that I am
sworn, and come what may, my oath shall not be broken."

"Tush," cried the other, maddened by disappointment, and filled with
desperate apprehensions, "men trust not avowed traitors. Upon them, I say,
you dogs. Let there be forty of them, but four can stand abreast in the
entrance, and we can front them, four as good as they."

And he again dashed at Arvina, without waiting to see if his gladiators
meant to second his attack; but they hung back, reluctant to fight against
such odds; for, though brave men, and accustomed to risk their lives,
without quarrel or excitement, for the gratification of the brute